U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez headlines rally to turn out Dems for Sam Forstag ahead of primary

MISSOULA – Last year progressive politicians U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stopped in Missoula as part of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. That rally drew a large crowd to the Adams Center at the University of Montana, and Ocasio-Cortez was introduced by a local Missoula smokejumper. 

On Thursday, the roles were reversed as Ocasio-Cortez introduced Sam Forstag to a crowd of around 800 at the historic Wilma Theatre, at a rally supporting him as a Democratic candidate for the state’s western house district. 

“We had that rally of 7,500 people, and there was a young man that introduced me. He was a union man, a wildland firefighter, the son of a public school teacher, and that man’s name was Sam Forstag,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Then, we were just a couple of folks getting together, talking about the issues of the day, but as it turns out, the momentum and the faith of coming together and organizing and refusing to give up created a window, and Sam decided to raise his hand and put his hat in the ring to run for Congress.”

Forstag said his motivation for running came last February, when he watched more than 300 colleagues in U.S. Forest Service positions lose their jobs in the first weeks of the second Trump Administration, and he had sought help and answers from “supposed Representative Ryan Zinke,” the district’s current congressman, but heard nothing. 

“After a year of fighting those cuts with my union, while fighting wildfires as a smokejumper, I decided that if they’re going to come after my coworkers and my union members’ jobs, I’m going to come take his,” Forstag said. 

Forstag is one of four Democrats running to be the nominee in what is Democrats’ best hope for making a change to the state’s all-Republican federal delegation.

Zinke is no longer runningno longer running for re-election to his seat, but has endorsed a successor, though four Republicans are facing off in Tuesday’s primary. 

Forstag is facing off against Ryan Busse, who ran for governor in 2024, earning 43% of the vote in the western district; Russ Cleveland, a veteran and small business owner focusing his campaign on healthcare solutions; and Matt Rains, a veteran and rancher from Simms. 

In a campaign where the candidates are largely aligned on the major issues, Forstag has leaned into his working-class roots and union bona fides to speak about issues of affordability facing Montanans. He has drawn endorsements from local, state and national union groups and on Thursday spoke about the need for solidarity, because the “only way that we stand up to the obscene amounts of money and power arrayed against working people in this country today is by standing together.”

“Working peoples’ power has always been in our numbers, and whether it is the Copper King’s abuse or the billionaires and bought politicians who are trying to burn it all down, so they can buy it all up, when working people hold together, there is little that we cannot accomplish,” he said. 

Ocasio-Cortez, who defines herself as a Democratic Socialist, is a polarizing figure in the national political scene, and has drawn condemnations from President Donald Trump and Republicans. 

Speaking before Forstag and Ocasio-Cortez was State Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, and local and national union leaders.  

Running Wolf, himself a former firefighter, said he had never made a political endorsement in his years in public office, but that Forstag’s background and messaging had earned his support. 

“Sam understands the struggle of everyday Montanans, because he’s lived them,” Running Wolf said. “He knows what it’s like to work two or three jobs just to buy groceries and to make the hustle happen, and he keeps a roof over his head, while gas and house prices are rising. Hard to do today. He doesn’t just want to represent Montana, he is Montana.” 

Forstag has endorsements from 12 different union organizations, and three union leaders took the stage before him — Erin Foley, president of the Montana AFL-CIO; Jacquie Helt, Montana state director of Service Employees International Union 775; and Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

“Labor doesn’t care what you look like. Labor doesn’t care where you come from. Labor cares whether you show up and whether you fight, and when things get hard, whether we stand together,” Helt said. 

In her speech, Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged the optics of her coming to stump for a Montanan as a New Yorker — and included an anecdote about having to learn what a smokejumper does. 

“I know, understandably, that there’s a lot of suspicion around the city girl, but I also think it’s important for us to note that a lot of that is intended to divide us,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Because what the folks and the big money don’t want us to realize is that … our struggles are far more common than our landscapes are different.”

Those commonalities include wanting higher wages, cleaner water, and the ability to work one job and be able to support our kids, have a home, go on vacation, and keeping something in your pocket, Ocasio-Cortez said.  

She said that Forstag told her one of the biggest issues for Montanans is the cost of housing, and she was “shocked to hear that, as a New Yorker.”

“He said yeah, when you look at the average cost of housing, pegged to average wage and salary here, it’s impossible,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “What a lot of these folks that are dumping in tons of money in congressional races like these, what they don’t understand, what they don’t want us to see, is that the same forces that pushed my family out in New York City are the same forces that are pushing yours out here too.”

The rally with AOC, which drew about a half-capacity crowd to the Wilma, was originally scheduled for last week, but moved to Thursday due to scheduling changes with the representative. 

There are just five days to go before Montana’s primary election day, and more than 30% of Montana voters have already returned their ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. In Missoula county, around 19,000 voters had already cast ballots ahead of the rally. 

In 2024, statewide turnout for the primary was around 41%, and in Missoula County, only about 35,000 voters cast ballots.